Creature Designs 1st Round

Alright I can successfully say this is my first real attempt at working with creature design. Unless you count the one piece I tried when I was in 6th grade :/

Or the dragons I used to draw back in 7th and 8th grade -__-

Anyway, I guess my point is I don't spend a lot of time in this particular design arena. But Having been through a couple of these now (with some wise guidance from Sr. Ramos :) I can definitely see the appeal. These have been a blast to create and hope that shows through in some of the work.

I'll keep this space updated with any new developments for this project but for now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFk2_5RkwlA

And for anyone who WASN'T at Red Rocks last night, you missed out on one HELL of a Bassnectar show. Whomp, whomp, warbly, whomp, WHOMP!! ;)

SPRAWL Building Update

Here's a progress update from the SPRAWL team. Adam shot me another screen from one of the corner blocks to flesh out a multi-complex structure. I'm superimposing the piece on top of the original screen plate. All that's left to do is get some signage scribble in some last minute details and lay down proper color. Thanks for checkin!

Face The Truth

Beginning stages of my first project for Grad Portfolio. Haven't decided how detailed or not I want to render this for the final. Color choice might end up changing too, we'll see after critique tomorrow! It's fairly graphic not only in the saturation/intensity of the pallet but by preserving the lineart and not blocking in the moving foreground figures it has a different style to it that I'm not used to seeing in my own work. Can't say I'm a fan of it at this point, would definitely like to introduce some more naturalistic tones and flesh out the static wall structure she's leaning up against. But for now...sleep :)

Gladiator Progress

Definitely need to spend more time figuring out what exactly this characters helmet will look like. It going to be a nice selling point so we're going to have to go through some design callouts and nail this one. I'm also going to need to spend more time understanding the value shifts in this area. I'm thinking my best best is to render each metalic surface as though it's brand new and highly polished before layering the grit and grime and doing a final paint pass to make everything feel worn. But as-is those highlights and shadow tones are completely off :/

I'm trying to mash classical gladiator with a Siberian setting (see Nissa character post below) so there's elements I need to drop and some I need to incooperate so these two characters look like they belong in the same universe. Right now I think they feel a bit detached from one another design-wise. BUT! I'll make sure to pull them both back together in the final stages.

Alley Quick Sketch

Another environment paint over. Started last week with a few 3 minute warm ups to figure out composition. Showed these to the SPRAWL guys and from there Adam provided me with a basic 3D screen from the current level build. To push myself and avoid noodling around with details, I made sure to 1) save any photo crops for later in the process and 2) stop finished or not at just over 2 hours to see how far I could get.

I went through Dylan Cole's Gnomon matte video again (i think the last time was well over a year ago) to better understand indicating detail quickly and efficiently. I've had issues in the past trying to figure out how concept artists construct urban landscapes that are so heavy in detail. But after going through both Dylan and Feng Zhu's methods I see now it's really just a TON of various mark-making with photos used to support the overall structures.

I guess my underlying goal here was to see how well I could communicate an urban setting without the use of photo crop and in a relative time crunch. Hopefully I hit that mark, if not at least landed somewhere close. Haha.

Also, came back from Kung Fu Panda 2 tonight. If you haven't see it already drop everything you're doing and get to the theaters.....now!!

Nissa Preview

I'll see if I can't finish her off by tonight. Thanks for looking!

Life Painting Progress Shot

It's been fun getting back into oil painting for the last couple weeks. Our models have been fun to work with and the costuming is better than anything we've done in the past. I spent the majority of Wednesdays session working out the face. Still not quite there but we're making progress. The model expressed an interest in purchasing this work once it's finished. She said it would be a nice gift for her mother and one where she was actually clothed, haha. So hopefully we can do it justice by the end ;)

In the meantime I think I'm going to knock out the clothing/torso region this weekend. I took photo's but haven't bothered using them because working from life feels so much more gratifying. That, and various other projects have taken up my weekend hours so the painting is usually saved for our Wednesday class.

18"x24" Oil on Masonite.